Authors: Your book is your business

Start where you are with what you have. You’ve heard it hundreds of times. But what does that mean? You have published the book and you have it on Amazon. Congratulations!

Now what? Now the fun and frenzy begins.

You push people to buy it. Share the Amazon link. You do “free download” days with the eBook. You run Facebook ads. Your blog about it. You send eblasts. You get creative and do a book trailer and some blog tours. You write a press release. You throw yourself into the media. You book yourself into podcasts or run a teleseminar or start a podcast on the topic of the book.

Hoping that people will buy the book, talk about the book, and then more people will BUY the book. Phew!

Book sales are skyrocketing, for at least three months. So do you know what happens after about 90 days?

Any.

You are exhausted and tired of pushing your book. You stop pushing it and your sales tank. All that hard work and now you’re stuck.

That is why it is not enough to be an author. You have to become an enterprising author. You must have a strategy to turn your book into a business.

You are the expert and authority on any subject in your book. You shouldn’t just be a book seller. You are the CEO of your information products business.

An enterprising author creates courses, workbooks, audiobooks, home study courses, lecture series, and even “brand” products like t-shirts, journals, backpacks, or phone cases. This is what we call “product line extension”.

Think like an entrepreneur, not like an author. Sure, you can go talk and sell books in the back of the room. But it’s not leveraging the full business model of what’s possible with a book.

  • You can hold an annual conference or convention on the subject of your book.

  • You can create a complete sales funnel and launch video/audio lessons for different levels of learning. Consider launching a series for beginners, then intermediate, and finally advanced.

  • I could train individuals and consult with companies.

  • You could sell your book in bulk to organizations.

  • You could become a paid spokesperson, columnist, or regular contributor to the media organization as an expert.

  • You could get sponsors and provide them with content for their blogs.

The opportunities are endless. There are hundreds of products or income streams you can pull from your book, but you need to think like an entrepreneurial author. It’s really about leveraging your resources, experience, and business knowledge to take you to the next level.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *